This past week I changed the blades on my planer (Craftsman 21722) and decided to share a few lessons I’ve learned about it.

Tip* If your machine (planer or not) makes A LOT of noise when cutting it’s very likely your blades need changed or sharpened. My planer was making such a noise so I looked into getting new blades. While looking for new blades online I found that my planer has reversible blades (as most do.) So I canceled the blades from my cart and went to the shop to flip the existing blades around.

There are procedures in the owner’s manual on how to do this. If you lost the owner’s manual there might be instructions placed on a sticker right on your machine. And if that fails I’ll tell you what I did with mine.

Disclaimer* That doesn’t mean I’m right or that you should do the same thing I did.Try this at your own risk.

First, I unplugged the planer, raised the deck as high as it would go and layed the planer on its side so I could see in. When looking in you will see the blades and a bunch of screws with allen wrench heads holding them in. I loosened all of these but did not take them all the way out. My planer had two (2) blades, yours may be different so be careful! The blades are typically guided in place by a magnet or alignment pins or both so be aware of this when removing the blades. Secondly there are holes in the middle of the blade so you don’t have to fiddle around with lining it up perfectly. Take extreme caution when handling these blades, they are incredibly sharp! You also do not want to drop them or pry on them because you could damage the blade. The smallest dent or nick in the blade can really screw up the finish it leaves on your wood!

Lastly, I flipped the blades to the new side and tightened the allen heads. I stood the machine back up-right, lowered the deck back down to a reasonable height, stood clear of the machine and turned it on as a test. Once I saw it was working correctly I ran a piece of scrap wood through. I could not believe how quiet it was and what a great finish it left! Hopefully this info will help you!